National Congresses
Round Tables
Legislative/Public Policy Briefings
International Activities
Awards
2009 Awards Winners
2011 Awards
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| Programs National Congresses Round Tables Legislative/Public Policy Briefings International Activities |
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Awards 2009 Awards Winners 2011 Awards |
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| National Congresses RNRF
conducts national congresses. These national meetings provide
an interdisciplinary forum on critically important issues. They are
attended by representatives of RNRF's member
organizations, the non-governmental organization community, federal and
state agencies, federal and state legislative bodies and others.
PRIOR
NATIONAL
CONGRESSES:Congress on Assessing America's Renewable Energy Future (conducted at the USGS Center, Reston, Va.) (2009). Sponsored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Additional support provided by U.S. Forest Service. http://www.rnrf.org/2009cong Congress on Environmental Science Issues Facing the U.S. Congress and Natural Resources Agencies (conducted at American Geophysical Union conference facility, Washington, D.C.) (2006). Sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. http://www.rnrf.org/2006cong Congress on Assessing and Mitigating Environmental Impacts of Emerging Contaminants (conducted at American Geophysical Union conference facility, Washington, D.C.) (2005). Sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey. Additional support provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.rnrf.org/2005cong Building Capacity for Coastal Solutions
(conducted at American Geophysical Union conference facility,
Washington, D.C.)
(2004). Sponsored
by: National
Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.
Geological Survey, USDA Forest
Service, and U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.rnrf.org/2004cong Federal Agency Personnel Trends, Budget
Stringencies, Challenges to Higher Education, and Evolving Roles of
Natural Resources Agencies (conducted at
American Association
for the Advancement of Science conference facility,
Washington,
D.C.)
hosted
by
and
conducted
in association with AAAS (2003). Sponsored
by: U.S.
Geological Survey, National
Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, and USDA Forest
Service. http://www.rnrf.org/2003conf Control of Nonpoint Source Water Pollution:
Options and Opportunities (conducted at Radisson Plaza Lord
Baltimore, Baltimore, Md.) hosted by
Department of Natural Resource Sciences and Landscape Architecture,
University of Maryland (2002). Sponsored by:
National
Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, and USDA Forest
Service. Additional support provided by: U.S.
Geological Survey, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and
U.S. Bureau of Land Management. http://www.rnrf.org/2002congress Promoting
Sustainability
in
the
21st
Century (conducted
at DoubleTree Hotel Janzen Beach,
Portland,
Ore.) hosted by the College of Forestry,
Oregon State University, and College of Forest Resources, University of
Washington (2000). Themes: 1)
Utilizing regional
approaches to land allocation and use, and 2) Identifying evolving
roles and educational
needs
of natural resources professionals). Sponsored
by: U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.
Geological Survey, USDA Forest
Service, and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Additional support provided by: USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service, National
Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, and Weyerhaeuser Company
Foundation. The congress report is available for purchase at the
"Publications" link. Reports of all congresses are available for
purchase at nominal cost. See our Publications web page for details.
Washington
Round Table on Public Policy Legislative and Public Policy Briefings International
Activities
The Sustained Achievement Award recognizes a long-term contribution and commitment to the protection and conservation of natural resources by an individual. The Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes a project, publication, piece of legislation, or similar concrete accomplishment that occurred during the three years prior to nomination for the award. (An individual cannot receive this award.) RNRF's Excellence in Journalism Award, established in 2001, honors and encourages excellence in print journalism about natural resources. RNRF seeks to advance public education and understanding of important natural resource issues through the dissemination of accurate and scientifically-based information about the environment. The award recognizes work by an individual, group, or organization for print media (such as a book, on-line report, or article/feature in a newspaper, magazine, journal, or newsletter). Sustained Achievement Award Recipients 1992 - Gilbert F. White, Boulder, Colorado Outstanding Achievement Award Recipients 1992 - Water Resources Education Initiative
(accepted by a consortium of nonprofits and federal agencies) Excellence in Journalism Award Recipients 2001 - Bay Journal, Karl
Blankenship,
editor; Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, publisher Recipients of Chairman's Award for Professional Service to the Foundation 2001 - Albert A. Grant, Public Interest
Member of RNRF Board of Directors, Potomac, Maryland Call for 2011 Awards Nominations Will Appear Here Early in 2011
Frank H. Wadsworth Receives 2009 Sustained Achievement Award  Frank H. Wadsworth was selected to
receive RNRF's 2009
Sustained Achievement Award. The Sustained Achievement Award recognizes
a long-term contribution and commitment to the protection and
conservation of natural resources by an individual.Wadsworth has given seven decades of professional and personal commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of the world's tropical forests. His incredible career has spanned over 71 years. Wadsworth has successfully promoted sustainable forest management throughout the Americas -- through research, resource management, technology transfer, networking, and public education. Since his "retirement" in 1999, after 61 years of service to the USDA Forest Service, he has continued his international engagement through active research, development, and training assignments. Having worked in Puerto Rico since 1942, Wadsworth is currently based at the Forest Service's International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Rio Piedras. His work extends to all areas of forestry and forest management, but goes beyond that into many other aspects of natural resource conservation and management. During most of his life he was actively involved with the Boy Scouts of America and he promoted public involvement in forest and wildlife conservation and education through the Natural History Society of Puerto Rico, which he helped found in 1960. Wadsworth wrote a highly significant book on sustainable forest management in tropical America "Forest Production in Tropical America" (1997), a 580-page summary of what was known about tropical forestry at that time. It has been used as a college textbook and the Spanish version has been widely used by students, professional foresters, and interested citizens in Latin America. As Forest Supervisor of the Caribbean National Forest from 1956-1974, Wadsworth significantly contributed to the Forest's management and expansion. Under his management, land was consolidated, the forest was expanded, new boundaries were formed, ecological research studies began, and the decline of the endangered Puerto Rican Parrot was reversed. His long list of publications, editorship of the Tropical Forest Station's quarterly "Caribbean Forester" for 24 years and of the quarterly "ISTF News" for over 29 years, and numerous training and consulting assignments throughout Latin America (and beyond) have contributed to the deep respect with which he is regarded as a scientist and leader in the tropical forestry network around the world. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the RNRF Board of Directors on November 16, 2009, in Potomac, Maryland. Dig It! The Secrets of Soil, Receives 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award  Dig It! The Secrets
of Soil, an exhibition developed by the
Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Environmental
Research Center, was selected to
receive RNRF's 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award. The Outstanding
Achievement Award recognizes a project, publication, piece of
legislation, or similar concrete accomplishment that occurred during
the three years prior to nomination for the award.Soil is a fundamental natural resource -- equivalent to air and water -- but is largely ignored by the public. Inspiring the public about the importance of this resource and the many ways it affects the everyday lives of people is the goal of the exhibition. The exhibition opened at the Natural History Museum on July 19, 2008, and closes on January 3, 2010. It occupies 5,000 sq. ft. of prime exhibition space in the museum, which attracts seven million visitors a year from the U.S. and abroad. One of the five educational goals of the exhibit is to communicate that soils are renewable resources. Visitors are exposed to the perspective that: (i) soils can be degraded by the actions of humans but there are many ways to prevent soil degradation, (ii) soil degradation has real consequences for everyone who depends on the soil's productivity and ecosystem service, and (iii) humans can't make new soils; we can reclaim degraded soils, but it's costly and time-consuming. Visitors emerge from the exhibition with the understanding that soil is not a resource unto itself but one that is intimately linked to other renewable resources such as air and water. This message is woven into exhibit pieces such as "The Big Picture" quiz, the "Soil Planet" sculpture, and two soils landscape models. Although the exhibition was designed to be entertaining and inspiring, this was not done at the expense of scientific content, much of which addresses managing and conserving renewable resources. One example from the exhibition where sound scientific practices are presented is a series of three panels titled "Soil Sense for the Planet." The center panel explains the twin challenges of feeding a growing planet while preventing degradation of the environment. The flanking panels promote two messages: (i) using science and technology to reduce our use of fertilizer and (ii) adopting low-till or no-till agriculture to reduce soil erosion. The exhibition's website is: http://forces.si.edu/soils Dig It! was made possible by financial support from founding sponsor Soil Science Society of America and lead sponsor Nutrients for Life Foundation (underwritten by The Fertilizer Institute). The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service was a strong partner that provided funds, scientific expertise, images and objects to the exhibit. The National Association of Conservation Districts and the Smithsonian Institution co-developed a full suite of educational materials based on the exhibit content. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the RNRF Board of Directors on November 16, 2009, in Potomac, Maryland. The Statesman Journal's "Invasive Species of Oregon" Receives 2009 Excellence in Journalism Award  The Statesman Journal's "Invasive Species of Oregon" was
selected to
receive RNRF's 2009 Excellence in
Journalism Award. The award,
established in 2001, honors and encourages excellence in print
journalism about natural resources. RNRF seeks to advance public
education and understanding of important natural resource issues
through the dissemination of accurate and scientifically-based
information about the environment. The award recognizes work by an
individual, group, or organization for print media (such as a book,
on-line report, or article/feature in a newspaper, magazine, journal,
or newsletter). From the start, the
Statesman Journal's series on invasive species was
envisioned as a public service journalism project. It was published
between September 2007 and June 2008. The goal was to educate the
public
about invasive species by focusing on the economic and environmental
implications in Oregon; give people easy and quick access to searchable
invasive species information; and encourage people to have a role in
identifying and preventing invasive species.The project combined traditional public service journalistic pursuits with a commitment to address this topic through multimedia that educates the public and provides community leadership. The user-friendly website http://www.InvasiveSpeciesofOregon.com has been cited for its unique content about Oregon's natural resources. The Statesman Journal organized the project around the school year to engage teachers and their students in critical thinking about invasive species and Oregon's natural resources. The series highlighted the various pathways for invasive species and showed the public how they can block those in-roads. For example, stories have shown readers that they should not dump plants or critters from their aquariums into nearby streams or ponds. That's how an aquatic weed, Egeria densa, spread throughout Oregon. Feral pigs were introduced to Oregon by landowners hoping to start a booming sport-hunting industry. And mute swans were brought by people interested in decorating their private lake with the elegant birds. The project featured: Monthly print series: Each month focused on a different category: mammals, terrestrial plants, birds, terrestrial invertebrates, aquatic plants, aquatic invertebrates, microorganisms, and fish. The installments were based around two primary stories each month -- one on a species already established here and another about a species threatening Oregon. Online: At http://www.InvasiveSpeciesofOregon.com, there are stories, photographs, videos, links and other online components, including a first-of-its-kind searchable database of more than 300 invasive species in Oregon. The database was created using a wiki approach with data collected from state/national experts from the government and state universities. Educaion: Each month included a Newspapers in Education (NIE) component for teachers of K-12 students. The NIE component came about because of feedback from experts during the development of the project. NIE material also was built around state curriculum guidelines. More than 150 DVDs featuring videos from the series have been distributed to classes and environmental groups. The primary message of the project is that Oregon residents can make a big difference in preventing the spread of invasive species and the entry of invasive species to the state -- species that can ruin the very things that people love about Oregon. The project has had a significant impact with state officials, professors, environmental advocates and concerned citizens. An Oregon State University professor is seeking a grant to have the series republished into classroom teaching material. And the Statesman Journal was named the Sandra Denyes Diedrich Award (Outstanding Defender) by the Oregon Invasive Species Council. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the RNRF Board of Directors on November 16, 2009, in Potomac, Maryland. Home / News / Meetings / Programs / Publications / Board of Directors / Members/Links / Policy Principles Statement / Internships/Education / Subscriptions |
The Foundation has
three annual
awards to recognize outstanding achievements in the renewable resources
fields. Two of the awards—established in 1992—were the first awards to
honor interdisciplinary achievements with an emphasis on the
application of sound scientific practices in managing and conserving
renewable natural resources.